Vrindavan

0

Reading Complexity:

Info

The gates of the Krishna-Balarama Temple in Vrindavan, India

Vrindavan is a town in north central India, about ninety miles southeast of Delhi. Traditionally acknowledged as the place of Krishna’s childhood pastimes, it is known as one of the holy dhamas—residences of the Supreme Being—and is one of the most frequented pilgrimage sites on the subcontinent.

Srimad-Bhagavatam describes the extraordinary pastimes Krishna performed in Vrindavan during His childhood. The Introduction to the Bhagavad-gita As It Is explains that the Vrindavan on earth is a replica of Krishna's eternal residence in the spiritual world. And the Brahma-samhita says Krishna, the Supreme Person, is simultaneously all-pervading and eternally living in that eternal, spiritual Vrindavan.

"On this earth, Vrindavan, ninety miles southeast of Delhi, is a replica of that supreme Goloka Vrindavan located in the spiritual sky. When Krishna descended on this earth, He sported on that particular tract of land known as Vrindavan, comprising about 168 square miles in the district of Mathura, India."

"The essence of His [Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's] preaching is that Lord Sri Krishna, who appeared at Vrajabhumi (Vrindavan) as the son of the King of Vraja (Nanda Maharaja), is the Supreme Personality of Godhead and is therefore worshipable by all. Vrindavan-dhama is nondifferent from the Lord because the name, fame, form and place where the Lord manifests Himself are all identical with the Lord as absolute knowledge. Therefore Vrindavan-dhama is as worshipable as the Lord."

"Amongst all of the planets in the spiritual sky there is one supreme planet called Goloka Vrindavan, the original planet in the abode of the original Personality of Godhead Sri Krishna. All of this information is given in Bhagavad-gita, and we are given through its instruction information how to leave the material world and begin a truly blissful life in the spiritual sky."

" I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, residing in His own realm, Goloka (Vrindavan), with Radha, resembling His own spiritual figure, the embodiment of the ecstatic potency possessed of the sixty-four artistic activities, in the company of Her confidantes [sakhis], embodiments of the extensions of Her bodily form, permeated and vitalized by His ever-blissful spiritual rasa (relationship)."

"Nevertheless, although Krishna is situated in His own abode, Goloka Vrindavan, He is simultaneously all-pervading and is therefore present everywhere. This is very difficult for a conditioned soul to understand, but devotees can understand how Krishna, without undergoing any changes, can simultaneously be in His abode and be all-pervasive."